Mario Bros.

Mario Bros. from the Game & Watch Multi Screen series released on March 14, 1983, and today we are playing it on the MiSTER FPGA with full gameplay and commentary. If you are new here, welcome. This is exactly the kind of classic handheld gaming the channel is built around.

This is a landmark game in Nintendo history. It was the very first appearance of Luigi in any video game, predating the arcade Mario Bros. release by almost two weeks. The game features Mario and Luigi working together in a bottling factory across two LCD screens connected by a clamshell design. Players control both characters moving them up and down as cases move along conveyor belts operating in alternating directions.

The objective is straightforward. Catch the cases at the end of each belt and lift them onto the conveyor above. Each case loaded earns 1 point. When eight cases reach the top, they load onto a waiting delivery truck, earning 10 points. When a case is dropped, it counts as a miss. Score three misses and the game ends. The score counter and truck driver animation trigger specific events as you progress.

The hardware specification was cutting edge for 1983 handheld gaming. The device used a Sharp SM510 chipset running at 32.768 kHz with dual LCD screens and required two LR44 button cell batteries for operation. The foldable clamshell design allowed Nintendo to feature two distinct action areas in a portable package, making the game feel more expansive than single-screen competitors.

The Model Number MW-56 hardware was manufactured in 1983 and featured background foil artwork behind the LCD elements, a design signature of the Multi Screen series. Controls were simple, just directional buttons and an action button, making the game instantly accessible but requiring precise timing and coordination to succeed.

At 300 points with no misses, the game enters Chance Time where all points scored are doubled until you make a mistake. This escalation system kept players coming back to beat their high scores, and the game became one of the most sought-after Game & Watch titles in the collector's market today.

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